The Annual Report Card (ARC) provides one of the most important outputs of the MCCIP programme, synthesising the previous years work in a highly accessible and actionable format. Our express aim is to provide an annual account of developments in UK marine climate science in the form of a:

"Short, comprehensive, quality assured, high level assimilation of knowledge set out in a visually impacting way that would enable the results to be quickly and easily understood and used by policy advisors, decision makers, Ministers, Parliament and the devolved administrations"

What are the key questions addressed by the ARC?

• What is the current state of scientific understanding of marine climate change in our oceans and seas?
• What changes have been observed and what could happen in the future?
• How much of this is hard fact and how much is interpretation?

Supporting Evidence 

The high level statements presented in the ARC are supported by more detailed briefing documents from the contributing scientists. These reports are fully accessible through the online version of the ARC and will set out the supporting case for the messages presented in ARC. These notes are fully referenced and key sources of information highlighted so that the user can look at each subject in greater depth. The MCCIP report card working group commissions the contributing scientists, and identifies appropriate specialists to peer-review the quality of the science.

'Special' topic report cards

In addition to our 'full' report cards, which look at over 30 topics, MCCIP periodically produces 'special topic' reports which focus on a few key topics in more detail. The 2009 MCCIP Ecosystem Linkages Report Card looked at five key issues (CO₂ and ocean acidification, Arctic sea-ice loss, seabirds and food webs, non-native species, and coastal economies) to show how the interconnected nature of the marine ecosystem magnifies the many discrete impacts of climate change, documented in the MCCIP annual report cards.